DESCRIPTION (adapted from the application) The proposed training program will be provided to trainees who have completed a year of clinical nephrology training and who will enter the Clinical Research Masters Program at the University of Minnesota. Each trainee will identify a research mentor prior to entering the program. Research will be initiated concurrently with course work in the Masters program. This program includes 38 credit hours of study in epidemiology, biostatistics, clinical trials, literature review and grant writing. It is a new course of study directed by Stephen Glasser who will also sit on the Selection and Steering Committees for the proposed training grant. The research project required for this degree will be combined with an additional year of research with a mentor of the Nephrology training faculty; all projects will be approved by Glasser and the Masters Program Executive Committee. Drs. Rosenberg and Glasser will coordinate communication between the faculty of the Masters and Nephrology Clinical Research programs as is related to these research projects. Trainees will be evaluated on a quarterly basis by the mentor and annually on the basis of scientific presentations and publications by the advisory committee and Steering Committee. In addition to the formal course work and individual research project, trainees will attend conferences in the Renal Division and the Department of Medicine and will participate in a continuity clinic in Nephrology.